Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

by Hiro Ainana

  Hmm. These must be party-related skills. They looked useful, so I distributed some skill points to each of them.

  Relevant knowledge about arranging and deploying party members appeared in my mind. Apparently, I could check and revise their relative positions, too.

  As we continued through the passage, an enemy appeared on my radar. It was still a fair distance away from us.

  Poking her head out into the darkness of the passageway and sniffing a few times, Pochi made her report. “I smell blood from up ahead, sir.”

  The distance in a straight line wasn’t that far, but along the curves of the passage it must have been about a third of a mile. I patted Pochi on the head, praising her sharp nose. It felt a little weird to treat her like a pet, but her tail was wagging enthusiastically, so she seemed happy.

  As we drew closer, I checked the enemy’s info on the map. It was level 20, with no special abilities; its attacks were “Tackle” and “Bite.” There was only one, and it was in the next room.

  Something occurred to me, and I made a note of the three girls’ statuses. I was surprised to find that there was an EXP field in their info. Seriously, is this a game? Their experience was shown in percentages, so I couldn’t get a concrete number, but it was convenient to know how close they were to their next level.

  I couldn’t see the EXP bars of any other people on the map. Was it limited to my party members? Or was there some other condition involved?

  A light escaping from the next room came into view. I told the other three to wait, and I peered into the space. A giant insect enemy, which apparently hadn’t noticed me, was eating…something. Ugh… Like I said, I have a very low tolerance for blood and gore.

  If I lose, is it going to eat me like that, too? Given the differences in our levels, it was hard to see how I could lose, but that didn’t make me feel much better.

  How do the protagonists of stories and legends fight crap like that without freaking out?

  The smell of blood, wafting downwind to me, made my gutless heart weak. Maybe we can just hole up in the room we came from and wait for help to arrive.

  “Young master, forgive my arrogance, but I wonder if we couldn’t perhaps sneak past the monster while it eats its prey, or else use the element of surprise to attack it from behind?” Timidly, Liza offered her thoughts. Surely she was afraid, too. In fact, I could see that her slender limbs were shaking.

  Even the girls with their single-digit levels are trying to figure out what we can do to move forward, and here I am with my tail between my legs. How did I think anyone would find us and come to our aid, anyway?

  I definitely couldn’t do close-quarters combat, but maybe I could just fire from a distance with my Magic Gun. My magic was strong enough to pulverize huge rocks, so it should be enough to take down this giant monster, too.

  I blocked out the sound of chewing and fired at it with the gun—at maximum power, of course.

  My first shot missed, but the bug monster didn’t notice that it was under attack. Just like when I had shot the rock before, I still hadn’t received a “Shooting” skill.

  The magic bullets glowed, so I could see their trajectory in the dark room. The creature noticed me after the second shot, but once I adjusted my aim, I was able to hit it with my third just as it scuttled around to face me.

  Since the gun was on its highest power setting, the bullet tore the creature’s hind legs from its joints. Before it could get an inch closer, I took down the giant camel-cricket monster with a rapid-fire barrage.

  It was such a complete victory that my worrying from just moments ago seemed ridiculous.

  > Skill Acquired: “Shooting”

  > Skill Acquired: “Sniping”

  > Skill Acquired: “Aim”

  > Title Acquired: Bug Killer

  I thought camel crickets only lived in the desert, giant or otherwise…

  “Super amazing, sir!”

  “So strong!”

  It was all thanks to the Magic Gun, so receiving compliments felt a little uncomfortable. Pochi and Tama were in high spirits, but it looked like something was still troubling Liza.

  “That’s a very strangely shaped wand, young master. You can use magic with it?”

  “This is a magic weapon. Just don’t tell anyone, okay?” I warned them for now. Liza nodded meekly, but Pochi and Tama replied with such an enthusiastic “’kaaay!” that I made a note to go over this with them again once we got out of the labyrinth.

  The bottom segments of the creature’s detached limbs looked to be the perfect shape for a staff or a spear. They weren’t anything like normal insect legs—they seemed almost artificial. Maybe I can create a makeshift spear out of this?

  I used the Magic Gun to detach the rod-shaped part of a hind leg. The clawed end felt a little loose, so I pulled out a slim block of wood and a leather strap from my bag and used them to fix it in place. Green liquid was leaking out the end, so I wrapped it in the same cloth we’d used to clean wounds earlier.

  > Skill Acquired: “Disassembly”

  > Skill Acquired: “Entomology”

  > Skill Acquired: “Demonology”

  > Skill Acquired: “Weapon Crafting”

  > Skill Acquired: “Leather Crafting”

  > Skill Acquired: “Woodworking”

  As usual, these seemed way too easy to obtain.

  The spear I’d just built looked like it would fall apart from a single stab, so this time I maxed out my new “Weapon Crafting” skill and used it to make a new one. The knowledge granted by “Entomology” and “Demonology” told me to cut a notch into the hind leg with my short sword and snap it off.

  Ew, that felt gross.

  I shaved down the remaining leg with the short sword. This seemed to be a magic weapon, too, because its sharp edge was far better than what I’d seen used in the count’s army.

  Last time, I’d bound the end with leather and wood, but this time I’d be using another piece of the monster itself. I could use its own tissue to bind it together, and the pieces would fuse automatically thanks to the creature’s powerful regeneration abilities. I wasn’t sure how or why this worked when the monster was already dead, but when I tried it out, the knowledge granted by my new skills was dead-on: The tissues fused into place.

  Just to be sure, I tied a leather strap around it for reinforcement.

  This still felt weirdly surreal and gamelike, but since this spear was far superior to the first one I’d rigged together, I guess I had nothing to complain about.

  I turned to offer the completed camel-cricket spear to Liza, only to find that she was hard at work with her short sword on the spot that connected the creature’s head to its back.

  …What, is she hungry?

  “Liza, if you eat that, you’ll get a stomachache for sure.”

  “Er…I’m not going to eat it. If this is a demon, it should have a core, so I thought I’d try to retrieve it…”

  Core? “What’s a core?”

  “Basically, it’s money. All monsters and demons have a core at their center, and if you give it to a peddler, you can exchange it for various things.”

  Liza’s response wasn’t quite what I’d been looking to hear, but I guess I shouldn’t have expected her to just rattle off information like a wiki. I watched as she pulled out a sphere covered in emerald-green blood. It was red, about the size of a fist. The color was really cloudy, though, so it certainly couldn’t serve as a jewel.

  When Liza returned with the spear, I handed her a small jute bag from my satchel. I also pulled out a used piece of cloth to wipe off the blood.

  “Put the core in this bag for now. Oh, and use this spear.”

  I handed off the bag to Pochi and gave the spear to Liza. The short sword she’d been using went to Tama instead. Switching equipment like this definitely makes me feel like I’m in an RPG.

  The short sword proved to be a bit too much for Tama to hold. The manacles attached to her collar were probably in the w
ay. Oh, maybe we can cut them off now.

  I called Liza over and had her pull the chains taut, then used the Magic Gun’s lowest power setting to shoot them off. Then I did the same for Pochi and Tama…but their ears had flattened with fear, so I pet their heads gently and apologized.

  I put their shackles in a bag and handed it to Pochi along with the bagged core.

  “Liza, starting with the next enemy, I’ll have Pochi and Tama take turns retrieving the cores, so please teach them how to do it.”

  “Yes, understood.”

  “Okay, sir!”

  “’kay!”

  They all seem pretty motivated, so that’s good, at least.

  Also, something else had been bothering me. “Oh, and Pochi…”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “You don’t need to go out of your way to add ‘sir’ to everything, you know.”

  “But if I forget it, I’ll be punished, sir.”

  “I see…” I had thought she was just being polite, but she was doing it because she felt she had to? I’m just their temporary master, so I don’t need to correct her. “Well, I won’t get angry if you don’t use it, so do whatever you’d like.”

  “Okay…sir.”

  I pressed my hands together and said a little prayer for the monster’s victim, wishing him happiness in his next life. I also made a note of the deceased’s name before we left the room.

  I compared the girls’ stats to before, but aside from a slight decrease in stamina, nothing seemed to have changed; their EXP hadn’t gone up at all. So they can’t get experience just by being in my party, huh? Then how do the members of supply units and priests and such raise their levels?

  If they could level up, I wouldn’t stand out too much during our escape, even if more people joined us. But I guess that would have been too easy.

  Well, since this is like a game, why don’t I try approaching it the same way?

  “Tama, if you find any rocks about the size of that core, please pick them up.”

  “’kay!”

  Not long after, the path diverged into two. It looked like both ways ultimately connected to the same room, but one of the paths had another chamber along the way. We would run into monsters no matter which route we chose, but in the additional area on the second path, there was a pair of level 10 hornworm monsters. And a little farther down, there were a few survivors.

  …I guess we should save them, huh?

  “The paths fork here, meow,” Tama reported once the crossroads came into view. No need to start with the weird speaking quirks now. I patted her head; she seemed pleased.

  Now Pochi looked envious, so I gave her a quick pat, too. Both of them came up to only my chest, so it was easy enough. They were about three and a half feet, maybe? And Liza was taller than me—about five five.

  “Let’s take the path on the right.”

  We proceeded along the passageway. According to my radar, I should be seeing a monster by now…

  “There’s a bug above us, sir,” Tama reported. Now she’s imitating Pochi?

  And how was I supposed to defeat an enemy I couldn’t see?

  …Oh, I know! I’m not sure if this is gonna work, but let’s try it out.

  I used the radar to figure out roughly where it was and looked in that direction. Moments later, an AR box popped up to display the monster’s name and level.

  Perfect! I fired indiscriminately at that general area, keeping the Magic Gun’s power setting at its lowest. One of them must have hit, because the hornworm monster dropped to the ground.

  “Tama, throw a stone at it!”

  Tama hurled three rocks at the monster. Two of them hit and bounced off, with only one of them causing damage.

  The hornworm slowly inched closer.

  “Pochi, Tama, get back. Liza, come up here. Stay behind me, but hit it once with your spear!”

  The hornworm attempted a tackle, and I warded it off with my weakest kick to buy some time. It felt sort of like kicking a rubber ball.

  Liza used that opening to strike the monster with the butt end of the spear; the tip wasn’t totally secure, so that seemed like the safest bet for now. Still, it did a little bit of damage.

  With that taken care of, I fired the Magic Gun a few more times to finish off the creature.

  Come to think of it, unlike back in the Valley of Dragons, the corpses of my fallen foes didn’t automatically disappear into my Storage. The spoils of war had all shown up when I beat the final lizardman that time, so maybe I had to clear out all the enemies for that to happen or something.

  “Liza, Tama, I’ll have you recover the core. Pochi, you come with me—there’s one more ahead.”

  Tama handed a bunch of stones to Pochi for throwing. Tama…how many stones did you pick up, exactly?

  The monster in the next room was the same kind as the one we’d just beaten. Lying on the floor were two corpses, a young woman and a boy who looked like a slave. Unlike with the camel cricket, these victims weren’t being eaten.

  “Pochi, once we go in, throw rocks at the monster from its side. When you run out, get back to Liza and Tama.”

  I breezily entered the room and started shooting. Just as I’d instructed, Pochi followed and threw a couple of stones at the creature. Both of them hit their target, but then the hornworm turned toward her and started to spit venom.

  Pochi’s predicament struck me with a thrill of horror, but I moved quickly and managed to kick the side of the hornworm’s head, changing its trajectory. I’d put more force behind the attack than I intended, though, because it crushed the monster’s head, and the thing stopped moving. The feeling on the sole of my foot was kind of disgusting.

  The venom didn’t hit Pochi, but it seemed to have scared her, because she ran off into the passageway—but it was the wrong one. She must have mixed them up in her panic.

  “Pochi, stop!”

  I chased after her, delayed slightly by going around the dead hornworm.

  “Wah! Stay away, stay away!”

  Huh? Who was that? That wasn’t Pochi’s voice. Was it the man I’d seen on the map in the passageway?!

  I checked the radar. He was way too close.

  “Pochi, get back here!” I dashed up behind her and grabbed the back of her neck, lifting her. I thought I saw the back of a man running away down the curved passage, but before I could chase him, his dot disappeared from the radar.

  Why did he run in the first place? Did he think Pochi was a monster?

  Or maybe he felt some kind of guilt toward the two victims in the other room…?

  At any rate, this labyrinth seemed to be a more treacherous place than I’d thought. I’d have to be more careful about these kids’ safety.

  “Young master! Are you all right?”

  “Awriiight?”

  Liza and Tama came running up to us.

  “Yeah, we’re fine. Let’s go back to that last room and get the core.”

  “I’m sorry, sir.” Pochi’s ears were flat as she apologized, and her tail had retreated between her legs. I wasn’t upset about her blunder, but if she panicked again, her life could be in danger, so I had to reprimand her a little.

  “Pochi, if things get dangerous like they did back there, it’s all right to run away. But you can’t lose your head, okay?”

  “…Yes, sir.”

  Pochi’s head lowered in gloomy contemplation, so I patted her lightly to cheer her up.

  > Skill Acquired: “Animal Taming”

  “Animal”? That was pretty rude. Couldn’t it be “Child Education” or something?

  When we returned to the room, the sight of Liza and Tama disassembling the corpse of the giant hornworm was pretty surreal.

  I noted the names of the two victims, but I couldn’t decide whether I should check the bodies to see if they had anything useful. I couldn’t quite bring myself to touch them, but as I stood hesitating, Liza took charge and told Pochi to investigate.

  “Should I take off their cl
othes, too?”

  “Just the shoes. Leave the rest.” I didn’t see why we’d need their clothes. But I’d been bothered for some time that the beastfolk girls didn’t have shoes, so I had her recover those.

  Pochi brought me the items she’d gathered. The slave boy didn’t have anything, but she had found a change purse and some rings and necklaces and other jewelry on the girl’s body.

  I made a folder in Storage for Belongings of the Deceased, then a subfolder for her name, where I stored the items. If there was a grieving family, I could return these to them. After a moment’s thought, I took a lock of their hair from each and put it in with the other things.

  I gave the shoes to Pochi and Tama to wear. Liza had the best constitution of the three, so I’d have to ask her to wait a little longer.

  The shoes of the young man we’d seen before were probably lying around in the room ahead with the giant snake, so I didn’t think she’d need to wait too long.

  My experiment with having the girls hit the monsters, however weak the attacks might be, seemed to have been a success. Liza and Tama had gained a level each, and Pochi had gained two.

  The girls seemed to acquire skills arbitrarily with their level, so Pochi now had the “Throwing” skill, Tama had the “Collecting” skill, and Liza got the “Disassembly” skill.

  But there was something strange about Liza’s skills. “Javelin” was in white text, but “Disassembly” was in gray. Pochi’s and Tama’s were in gray, too. If that meant the same thing as it did in my own interface, they hadn’t been activated yet. If the girls could enable them, their combat abilities would vastly improve right away, but I could only see this information; I couldn’t change around my party members’ skills like in a single-player RPG.

  There are still more than a hundred rooms left in this labyrinth… I’ll figure things out as we go.

  I motioned to the beastfolk girls, and we headed for the next room.

  We proceeded through six more chambers, but we still hadn’t met any living humans. Only several more corpses.

  “Master, we’ve finished retrieving the core.”